Britain's Brexit Plan? Leaked Memo Says There Is No Plan

[Tennis]

http://fortune.com/2016/11/15/brexit...o-theresa-may/

The memo casts Britain’s top team in a chaotic light.

Britain has no overall strategy for leaving the European Union and splits in Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet could delay a clear negotiating position for six months, according to a memo for the government that was leaked to The Times newspaper.

The document, prepared by a consultant for the government department that supports the prime minister and her cabinet, casts Britain’s top team in a chaotic light: May is trying to control key Brexit questions herself while her senior ministers are divided and the civil service is in turmoil.

“The Prime Minister is rapidly acquiring the reputation of drawing in decisions and details to settle matters herself—which is unlikely to be sustainable,” according to the document, dated Nov. 7 and published by The Times.

“It may be 6 months before there is a view on priorities/negotiation strategy as the political situation in the UK and the EU evolves,” said the document, titled “Brexit Update.”

A spokesman for Downing Street said it did not recognize the assertions made in the document but did not explicitly deny the authenticity of the document. The prime minister is focused on making a success of Brexit, the spokesman said.

But such a disorderly portrayal of the government underscores both the extent of the turmoil unleashed by the June 23 vote to leave the EU and the uncertainties ahead as May tries to pull Britain out of the world’s biggest trading bloc.

Like the Brexit vote, Donald Trump’s victory in the United States has underscored how swiftly assumptions are being turned upside down, pushing governments, investors and chief executives into the unknown.

The pound fell as much as 1.3% to 87.07 pence per euro following the memo leak before recovering to 86.92 pence. It also lost more than half a percent to $1.2417.



‘No Common Strategy’

The memo said no common strategy had emerged, partly as a result of splits within the government and partly due to the evolving political situation in the rest of the EU where both France and Germany face major elections in 2017.

May’s cabinet is split, with Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, Trade Minister Liam Fox and Brexit Minister David Davis—who all campaigned to leave the EU—on one side and finance minister Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark—who wanted to remain—on the other, according to the memo.

May’s priority, it said, is survival and keeping her ruling Conservative Party together, rather than business or economic considerations.

“Industry has 2 unpleasant realizations—first, that the Government’s priority remains its political survival, not the economy,” the memo said.

“Second, that there will be no clear economic-Brexit strategy any time soon because it is being developed on a case-by-case basis as specific decisions are forced on Government.”

The document also said that “major players” in industry were likely to “point a gun at government’s head” to secure assurances similar to that given to carmaker Nissan that it would not suffer from Brexit.

“The public stance of Government is orientated primarily to its own supporters, with industry in particular barely being on the radar screen—yet,” it said.

Wow! What a mess. They wanted to leave the EU and didn't even have a plan?
Cameron left the country in shambles.

[GennGreymane]

You need to save them @Tennisace !11

[Shibito]

You need to save them @Tennisace !11

Our lord and savior Tennisface knows the way!

[Calfredd]

Tennisace you hypocrite. Germany cracking down on a group of terrorists within their country isn't thread worthy but all the crap you post about is?

A 2 paragraph article? This isn't enough to start a thread on.

[GennGreymane]

Tennisace you hypocrite. Germany cracking down on a group of terrorists within their country isn't thread worthy but all the crap you post about is?

Its more than two paragraphs. You are just jelly

[Tennis]

Tennisace you hypocrite. Germany cracking down on a group of terrorists within their country isn't thread worthy but all the crap you post about is?

Uh dude, I was just watching the world news on TV and this was a leading story. I don't appreciate your false accusations.

It was clear that it was pure mayhem in the UK regarding Brexit. Pretty thread worthy.

[Calfredd]

Uh dude, I was just watching the world news on TV and this was a leading story. I don't appreciate your false accusations.

It was clear that it was pure mayhem in the UK regarding Brexit. Pretty thread worthy.

Acting like Hammerfest in the Climate Change thread does you no favors.

[Kalis]

Wow! What a mess. They wanted to leave the EU and didn't even have a plan?
Cameron left the country in shambles.

Cameron didn't have a plan because he didn't want to leave the EU and May didn't have a plan because she was Home Secretary.

Who was supposed to have devised this plan? Boris?

[GennGreymane]

Cameron didn't have a plan because he didn't want to leave the EU and May didn't have a plan because she was Home Secretary.

Who was supposed to have devised this plan? Boris?

Who needs a plan?

[Kalis]

Who needs a plan?

The A-Team.

[GennGreymane]

The A-Team.

I pity the fool.

[Tennis]

Cameron didn't have a plan because he didn't want to leave the EU and May didn't have a plan because she was Home Secretary.

Who was supposed to have devised this plan? Boris?

He had a referendum and had no plan? Is this a joke or something? That's not how you run a country.

[Kalis]

He had a referendum and had no plan? Is this a joke or something? That's not how you run a country.

Why would he create a plan for something he didn't want to do? That wouldn't show much faith in his campaign to stay would it?

[Thessik-Irontail]

The people have spoken, now is time to respect their wishes and get the hell out of the sinking ship EU as soon as possible.

The left will want to delay the process as much as possible in hopes that they can change peoples minds over time and then when sufficient time has passed, do another referendum. However the uprising against the leftist globalism agenda is not going away, it is just getting started.

[Deleted]

The people have spoken, now is time to respect their wishes and get the hell out of the sinking ship EU as soon as possible.

Oh sure.

The left will want to delay the process as much as possible in hopes that they can change peoples minds over time and then when sufficient time has passed, do another referendum. However the uprising against the leftist globalism agenda is not going away, it is just getting started.

Gotta fight that globalist EU.
just out of curiosity, name a couple of things you don't like about the EU.
Cos i'm pretty sure if you go past 2-3 you are going to mention shit that's squarely on the UK.

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He had a referendum and had no plan? Is this a joke or something? That's not how you run a country.

In defense of pig fucker, its not like it was a simple plan to create.

[rogueMatthias]

Hasn't this memo been dismissed already?

Even the BBC is reporting that it was as good as bogus, and they're incredibly anti-Brexit.

[Mihalik]

The people have spoken, now is time to respect their wishes and get the hell out of the sinking ship EU as soon as possible.

YES! Let's jump into this rickety lifeboat, filled with holes and get away from this "sinking ship" in the middle of a stormy North Atlantic, let's do that instead of fixing the pumps on the ship! The people have spoken!

Britannia Ackbar! Deus vult!

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Hasn't this memo been dismissed already?

Even the BBC is reporting that it was as good as bogus, and they're incredibly anti-Brexit.

May's Brexit plan is like Trump's ISIS plan! It's a "strategic surprise" (read -We have no idea what we are doing, so we are just winging it).

[Omega10]

The people have spoken, now is time to respect their wishes and get the hell out of the sinking ship EU as soon as possible.

The left will want to delay the process as much as possible in hopes that they can change peoples minds over time and then when sufficient time has passed, do another referendum. However the uprising against the leftist globalism agenda is not going away, it is just getting started.

The left has nothing to do with this. This is mid-November - the reason UK has not started the processing of BrExit is that the non-left controlled government of UK simply has not filed the paperwork. When the vote was done, I was fully expecting that timetables would all be set up and good to go by now. If this report is completely true, then the plan seems to be to run out the clock until BrExit is just forgotten about. If it is partially true then if might just be incompetence in putting this plan together. Yeah its a hard plan to come up with, but I haven't even hard about preliminary plans to START the process.

It almost sounds like BrExit was meant to be a protest vote that lost. Now that BrExit won, no one seems to have a clue where to go next. I suspect that there is a lot of infighting over exactly which industries and businesses end up taking the worst brunt of BrExit realities.

[Kallisto]

Cameron didn't have a plan because he didn't want to leave the EU and May didn't have a plan because she was Home Secretary.

Who was supposed to have devised this plan? Boris?

Whoever was heading the leave campaign should have had a plan at least, yes.

[alexw]

He had a referendum and had no plan? Is this a joke or something? That's not how you run a country.

I'm sure there's a plan a very very cunning plan.